Veins of light were splitting open like cracks in the earth beneath her boots. Elaine's breath hitched, scythe blazing as she lifted it.
Her shadow looked back — same face, same eyelids, same voice, but the eyes… cold, digital perfection.
"Do you think you can fight me?" it said. "You're code now. Just weaker code."
Elaine turned her head, smirking through the pain.
"If so," she said, "why are you scared?"
The shadow paused — a flicker, a glitch. A single stutter – that was all Elaine required. She lunged, scythe slashing through disintegrating pixels, ripping a scream from the copy's throat. The impact sent shards of data flying into the air, like glass.
The shadow struck back quickly — her own scythe reforming midair. They clashed in a surge of dark light that warped the fabric of reality around them. For a moment, the Core seemed to stop — a lull in every sound, in every pulse, as if they were all waiting for the victor.
"You can't erase me!" the shadow roared. "You are me!"
"Then I'll have to live with that," Elaine spat, twisting her blade. "Dream, dream, dream, but you will not live."
She hit her. The shadow's chest was ripped open, and white code was spilling out of the wound like fire. Tear as it may, it finally fell to its knees, dissolving into static. But before it disappeared, it smiled — serene, sinister.
"You will not win if you have to lose yourself," it whispered.
The light exploded outward, hurling Elaine into the ruined square. When she stood her scythe was gone.
Her image on the cracked screen next to her flickered—now both her face and the shadow's were displayed, merging with each other frame by frame.
She raised her eyes to her hands.
Half human. Half glitch.
And then—
"Elaine," Ian's voice came through, trembling. "Don't come for me. No matter what, stay away from the kernel."
The signal cut.
Her heart pounded in her chest.
"Ian…"
The Core rumbled again — this time not crumbling, but ballooning.
Whatever Ian had done, it was the beginning of something a lot worse.